Sentence Correction

Diabetes, together with its serious complications,

ranks as the nation's third leading cause of death ,surpassed only

by heart disease and cancer.

(A) ranks as the nation's third leading cause of death, surpassed only
(B) rank as the nation's third leading cause of death,only surpassed
(C) has the rank of the nation's third leading cause of death, only surpassed
(D) are the nation's third leading causes of death,surpassed only
(E) have been ranked as the nation's third leading causes of death, only surpassed

Question : What exactly "surpassed only [/quote]by heart disease and cancer" is modifying ?

its modifying Diabetes.

Just read the sentence like this.


Diabetes, together with its serious complications, ranks as the nation's third leading cause of death, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer.

Exactly -- "ranks" is the verb for diabetes, "surpassed" is a participle.

Jim@Grockit wrote:Exactly -- "ranks" is the verb for diabetes, "surpassed" is a participle.

Jim In C,only is an adverb that modifies surpassed.Isnt it saying that it was just surpassed and nothing more by heart disease and cancer.

Jim@Grockit wrote:Exactly -- "ranks" is the verb for diabetes, "surpassed" is a participle.

Past participle at the end of the sentence can modify the subject like this ?

Could any expert explain this if past particile at the end of the sentence can be used ?

mundasingh123 wrote:

Jim@Grockit wrote:Exactly -- "ranks" is the verb for diabetes, "surpassed" is a participle.

Jim In C,only is an adverb that modifies surpassed.Isnt it saying that it was just surpassed and nothing more by heart disease and cancer.

Fascinating question. I can't honestly explain why, but I'm sure that the sentence as given is correct. The adverb in that position could take either meaning -- here it describes that the state of being surpassed was in regards only to heart disease and cancer. I'll think on a better explanation of this, and let's see if Jim can help us both out here!

GMATMadeEasy wrote:

Jim@Grockit wrote:Exactly -- "ranks" is the verb for diabetes, "surpassed" is a participle.

Past participle at the end of the sentence can modify the subject like this ?

Yes. Participial modifiers can (and often do) modify the subject of the previous clause. When set off by a comma, and not at the beginning of a sentence, participial modifiers do NOT follow strict placement rules, so they are often a good fix to a misplaced modifier situation. However, because of the lack of clarity, they are sometimes ambiguous, too, and relative clauses are "better" if and only if they are properly placed next to the noun they are modifying.

@AdamKnewton: Thank you. Could you give an another example please to understand this better. that is "past participle" at the end of the clause set off by a comma and modifying the subject. Any other OG question using it this way ?

GMATMadeEasy wrote:@AdamKnewton: Thank you. Could you give an another example please to understand this better. that is "past participle" at the end of the clause set off by a comma and modifying the subject. Any other OG question using it this way ?

I'm not immediately sure of any OG question, but here's another simple example:

"Businesses in this state hope to see tremendous gains in the future, freed from the unnecessary restraints of misguided policies of economic regulation."

Here, "freed by..." modifies "businesses."